[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 39, Number 26 (Monday, June 30, 2003)]
[Pages 800-803]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the Biotechnology Industry Organization Conference

June 23, 2003

    Thanks a lot. Welcome to the Nation's Capital, and thanks for having 
me drop by.
    I knew Tommy was here when I saw his Harley Davidson parked out 
front. [Laughter] So I just put my Segway right next to it. [Laughter]
    It is a pleasure to be with so many leaders in such a vital 
industry. Each of you is carrying on the incredible work began some 50 
years ago by Doctors Watson and Crick. Since then, biotechnology is 
advancing knowledge and relieving suffering. In the years to come, the 
contributions of your industry will help us to win the war on terror, 
will help us fight hunger around the world, and will help us to save 
countless lives with new medicines.
    My administration is committed to working with your industry so that 
the great powers of biotechnology can serve the true interests of our 
Nation and mankind.
    Tommy Thompson is the Secretary of Health and Human Services. He is 
the point man for this administration on biotechnology and other matters 
of national health. And he is doing a fantastic job for America. Thank 
you, buddy.
    I want to thank Carl Feldbaum for inviting me and inviting you. I 
want to thank the--and welcome the Premiers and Ministers and 
Ambassadors and distinguished guests from around the world who are here 
today. I want to thank the Members of Congress who are here. Some of our 
Nation's Governors have joined us today.
    I understand the Mayor is here. I always like to see the Mayor and 
remind him that potholes in front of the White House need to be repaired 
on a regular basis. [Laughter]
    I appreciate my Commissioner, the man I named to head the Food and 
Drug Administration, Mark McClellan, for his service to the country.
    The biotechnology industry finds itself on the frontlines of some of 
the great challenges of our time. The first challenge is the need to 
fight terror. All of us know the great possibilities of modern science 
when it is guided by good and humane purposes. We understand as well the 
terrible harm that science can do in the hands of evil people.
    On September the 11th, 2001, the world saw what terrorists could do 
with commercial airliners turned into weapons of mass murder. We know 
that our enemies have ambitions to acquire and use biological, chemical, 
and nuclear weapons. We will not sit idly by as these threats gather, 
and we will continue to act before dangers are upon us. The most direct 
way, the best way of removing threats to our country, is to eliminate 
them at their source. And that's what the United States of America has 
done and we will do by waging a focused, relentless effort to hunt down 
any terrorist that would harm the United States of America and our 
citizens.
    And we're making progress. We have captured or killed many key 
leaders of Al Qaida. And the other one knows we're hot on their trail. 
In Afghanistan and Iraq, we gave ultimatums to terror regimes. Those 
regimes chose defiance, and those regimes are no more.
    As we take the battle to the enemy, we must always remember where 
the battle began: here in our own country. So we've reorganized 
Government to defend the homeland, with greater security at our borders 
and ports, with more screeners at airports, and the Nation's first 
environmental sensors, a network of labs to quickly detect a biological 
attack.
    A key part of our all-out effort to prepare for the threat of 
bioterror is what this administration has called Project BioShield. I 
have proposed that our Government spend nearly

[[Page 801]]

$6 billion over the next 10 years to speed the research, production, and 
availability of effective vaccines and treatments against smallpox and 
anthrax, botulinum toxin, Ebola, plague, and other possible agents of 
bioterror.
    Under Project BioShield, the Government will have the spending 
authority to ensure that the most advanced vaccines and treatments are 
available to our people. Project BioShield will give our scientific 
leaders greater authority and more flexibility in decisions that may 
affect our national security. Our labs will be able to hire the right 
experts, to buy the right equipment, and to speed the construction of 
the right facilities to accelerate urgently needed discoveries.
    Like other great scientific efforts, Project BioShield will have 
applications beyond its immediate goals. As scientists work to defeat 
the weapons of bioterror, I know they will gain new insights into the 
workings of other diseases. And this will also break new ground for the 
search for treatments and cures. And this, in turn, can provide great 
benefits for all humanity, especially in developing countries, where 
infectious diseases often go uncontrolled.
    Your industry must stay involved with this issue. If you're 
interested in seeing more flexibility and more research dollars for the 
sake of national security, I need your help in lobbying the Members of 
the United States Congress. And the message is clear: For the sake of 
our national security, the United States Congress must pass the 
BioShield legislation as soon as possible.
    Your industry is also helping this country and the world to meet a 
second great challenge, sparing millions of people from starvation. 
America and other wealthy nations have a special responsibility to 
combat hunger and disease in desperate lands. We meet that 
responsibility with emergency food in times of crisis. Next year, the 
United States will devote more than a billion dollars, providing food 
and aid to the hungry. But for the long term, we must help troubled 
nations to avert famine by sharing with them the most advanced methods 
of crop production.
    Through the work of scientists in your field, many farmers in 
developed nations are now able to grow crops with high resistance to 
drought and pests and disease, enable farmers to produce far greater 
yields per acre. In our own country, we see the benefits of biotech 
every day with food prices and good land conservation practices. Yet, 
the great advantages of biotechnology have yet to reach developing 
nations in Africa and other lands where these innovations are now most 
needed.
    Acting on unfounded, unscientific fears, many European Governments 
have blocked the import of all new biotech crops. Because of these 
artificial obstacles, many African nations avoid investing in 
biotechnology, worried that their products will be shut out of important 
European markets. For the sake of a continent threatened by famine, I 
urge the European Governments to end their opposition to biotechnology. 
We should encourage the spread of safe, effective biotechnology to win 
the fight against global hunger.
    Finally, your industry is in the forefront of improving health care 
for all Americans, and we are grateful. Thanks to biotechnology, we may 
soon be able to grow life-saving therapies and useful chemicals in 
plants. Biotechnology might allow scientists to produce large amounts of 
monoclonal antibodies, which target specific, disease-causing molecules 
without attacking healthy cells. We're closing in on the ability to 
protect and fight against a range of illnesses, including cancer and HIV 
and heart disease.
    In coming years, we will see further innovations, like insulin that 
can be inhaled rather than administered by a needle. Men and women in 
your field are at work on synthetic blood that is free from infections 
and capable of being administered to all blood types. New therapies are 
nearing which will enable doctors to look at diseases for genetic 
markers and then give patients individualized treatments. The future of 
medicine in the United States of America is incredibly bright because of 
your work and your skill and your research. Our biotechnology industry 
is the strongest in the world, and we need to keep it that way.
    And now we have a challenge to make sure that many of the advances 
you have made in making sure our health care system can be world-class 
is extended to all Americans,

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especially our senior citizens. The Medicare system has served seniors 
well for nearly four decades. Yet, while medicine has dramatically 
advanced, Medicare hasn't. The program was designed at a time when 
hospital stays were common and drug therapies were rare. Thanks to your 
efforts, there are drugs and other treatments that can dramatically 
reduce hospital stays which, in turn, improves quality of care and 
quality of life. We have a responsibility to improve and strengthen 
Medicare by making modern medicine an integral part of the Medicare 
system, and that includes prescription drugs for all our seniors.
    This is a goal you have supported for several years. And if we 
finally put aside partisan politics and focus on what's right for 
American seniors, I believe we can achieve the goal this year. The 
debate is on in the United States Congress, and I've submitted a 
framework for reforms that insists that our seniors have choices under 
Medicare so that affordable health care plans compete for their business 
and give them the coverage they need, not the coverage that a Washington 
bureaucrat thinks they need.
    The principle of choice, of trusting people to make their own health 
care decisions, is behind the health plan enjoyed by every person on the 
Federal payroll, including the Members of the United States Congress. 
All Federal employees get to choose their health care plan. Health care 
plans compete for their business. Members of Congress have got excellent 
choices. If the choice idea is good enough for the lawmakers, it ought 
to be good enough for the seniors of the United States of America.
    Seniors who want to stay in the current Medicare system should have 
that option, plus a new prescription drug benefit. Seniors who want 
enhanced benefits, such as more coverage for their preventative care and 
other services, should have that choice as well. Seniors who like the 
affordability of managed care plans should be able to enroll in them. 
And low-income seniors should receive extra help, so that all seniors 
will have the ability to choose a Medicare option that includes 
prescription drug benefits.
    As we pursue Medicare reform, we must make sure that whatever system 
evolves does not undermine America's biotechnology industry. We need to 
keep rewarding innovation and protecting competition without unnecessary 
intervention by the Government. When the Government determines which 
drugs are covered by health insurance and which illnesses are treated, 
patients face delays and inflexible limits on coverage. That is a fact. 
Medicine works best when doctors and their patients decide what 
treatments to pursue.
    We're making progress on this important issue. The House committee 
has marked up legislation. The Senate is now actively debating the issue 
on the floor. We have a chance to finally modernize Medicare, and I ask 
for your help. Please contact your Senators and Members of the United 
States House of Representatives. Ask them to take a tough vote, if need 
be, to modernize a system which needs to be saved.
    And as you make your voices heard on necessary reform for Medicare, 
make sure you make your voices heard on making sure that we have legal 
reform in America as well. We sue each other too much in the United 
States of America. We passed a medical liability reform bill and a class 
action reform bill out of the House of Representatives. These bills are 
stuck in the United States Senate. For the sake of a balanced legal 
system, we need tort reform in Washington, DC. And I call upon the 
United States Senate to act, to pass meaningful liability and class 
action suit reforms now.
    These are times of great challenge for this country. Our country 
must continue to meet the grave dangers of bioterrorism. We've got to 
continue to work to help relieve suffering around the world. And we've 
got to continue to seek cures to terrible diseases.
    In all of this, we're relying on the skill and conscience of 
scientists in the field of biotechnology. As men and women of science, 
you have accepted a moral calling to improve lives and to save lives. 
That calling also requires a deep respect for the value of every life 
because even the most noble ends do not justify any means. This Nation 
is counting on you to serve the true interests of all humanity. You face 
great challenges, yet you're an industry who welcomes challenge. Your

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hard work and inspiration have produced incredible successes. You have 
made us all proud. After all, millions of people are in your debt. The 
American people are grateful for your many achievements, and we look 
forward to the many achievements yet to come.
    May God bless your work, and may God continue to bless America.

Note: The President spoke at 1:08 p.m. at the Washington Convention 
Center. In his remarks, he referred to Carl Feldbaum, president, 
Biotechnology Industry Organization; and Mayor Anthony A. Williams of 
Washington, DC.